The War of Words continues...
Last week on Mike Lupika's radio show, Cal was being interviewed and was asked about how much a college coach should be held responsible for when something involving their program happens. In typical Cal fashion, he had no problem in continuing with the Summer War of Words:
Well it depends on who that coach is. There will be some coaches where everybody will say, 'well there's no way he knew.' And there will be other coaches where they'll say, 'well he knew what he knew that that happened with that family in 8th grade. He knew. You know he knew.' You know, it's all what people are going to say.
All I can tell you is this: If it happens on your campus and it happens with your assistants and those people, you probably have a pretty good idea of what's going on. If it happens back in their home town, it happens back with their family or other ways, there's no way you can know. You just don't know. So, all I would say is most coaches have an idea if it happened on their campus. You might not be the first to know about it, but you eventually hear about it.
It's unfortunate, you wish there was more consistency about how they do things in the NCAA. There's a belief out there of selective enforcement, and some people will call right to Emmert and say, ‘Get these people off me,' and it changes. It's selective.
My life, even as a college student, has all been through the NCAA, and I'm telling you there's so much good that comes out of it. We have lost our way, they have lost their way, and that's all I've been saying. And everybody is mad at me and I'm the worst guy in the world and all that. I'm fine with that. I'm at that age where I really don't care what you think. I'm at that age now. All I know is how will history judge us, and history is going to judge us by the legacy we leave with our own players. How are they? Do they know we're for them? Your legacy is your players.
History's going to talk about all of us, and it isn't going to be a guy that's friends with your enemies.
There are a lot of things that can be questioned about Cal and his past and "what he knew", but not here to do that on this particular post. It took Pitino no time to give his thoughts/comments, and Pitino wasn't going to shy away from anyone:
"Whether its Duke last month or us this month, these type of comments - we're here to build up the image of college basketball, not tear people down," Pitino said, making a reference to Calipari's recruiting manifesto that many believed was a shot at Duke and its recruiting tactics.
"I don't live in a glass house, and I don't throw stones."
Pitino was then further asked if he will talk to Calipari about what Cal meant or didn't mean:
"I don't have time to figure out what he did or didn't mean," Pitino said. "If our paths cross this summer, I'll ask him"
Best rivalry.
